AN ORIGIN OF THE EQUILIBRIUM LIQUID-LIKE LAYER ON ICE

Abstract : Mechanism of liquid-like layer formation on ice was pursued by examining the nature of the surface layer. It was found that the hydrogen bond of ice which makes water expand upon freezing and the compression in the normal direction within the surface layer are responsible to cause the pressure melting effect on the ice surface. Assuming a rigid sphere model with -i-th power intermolecular potential and the additivity, a scheme was developed to compute the distribution of the total potential and that of the integrated force across the surface. It was shown that the total integrated pressure is approximately proportional to the -i+4-th power of the depth and the temperature of the liquid-like layer is proportional to this power. The relation-ship was shown for i=6 case. Based on this treatment, specific existence of the liquid-like layer was predicted on pressure-melting solids.